INSTITUTE FOR DOCTORAL STUDIES
IN THE VISUAL ARTS
Santiago Zabala: ICREA Research Professor of Philosophy at the Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona. He is author, with Gianni Vattimo, of Hermeneutic Communism: From Heidegger to Marx; and most recently of the book Only Art Can Save Us: Aesthetics and The End of Emergencies. In Barcelona, Zabala will introduce the Gianni Vattimo Archives held at Pompeu Fabra University.
Arianna Letizia: Literary agent and editor for Italian authors and publishers, Arianna Letizia graduated in Contemporary Philosophy in her hometown Napoli, and received an MA in marketing and publishing in Milano. She also sells her authors’ books to movies and TV series productions in Italy and abroad. In Barcelona she will give a talk on the publishing industry.
Nausikaä El-Mecky: Art historian and cultural theorist, Nausikaä El-Mecky specializes in attacks and censorship of art, from the earliest images until today. She is tenure track professor in art history and visual culture at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona, where she will lead students on a guided tour of contemporary art museums.
Shara Wasserman: American art historian and curator of contemporary art, and director of the Temple Rome Gallery of Art at Temple University in Rome, where she is also a faculty member in the Art History program. Wasserman has curated numerous international exhibitions in public and institutional spaces. In Rome, she will accompany IDSVA students to museums and contemporary artist studios.
David Driskell: Artist-philosopher, printmaker, painter, curator, and art historian David Driskell is the founder of the David Driskell Center for the Study of the Visual Arts and Culture and the African Diaspora, at University of Maryland, College Park. His art is to be seen in numerous collections worldwide, including the Colby College Museum of Art, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Oakland Museum, and The Whitney Museum of American Art, among others.
Franca Marini: Italian international artist, after many years of experience in the visual arts, she is currently engaged in the creation of site-specific installations and video art. Her work has been shown in Europe, United States, Central America and Palestine. At Spannocchia she will talk about her recent installations concerning the phenomenon of migration in Europe.
Howard Caygill: Considered one of the most important European philosophers of our time, author of On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance, and Kafka: In the Light of the Accident, Howard Caygill will lecture on the theme of cynegetics, in particular, manhunts in Kafka and on Francis Bacon, and give a talk and guided tour on Benjamin as a Berlin writer.
Giovanni Tusa: Philosopher, media researcher, documentary filmmaker and video artist, Giovanni Tusa is currently a IFILNOVA-FCT Research Fellow at the Universdade Nova of Lisbon. Visiting Lecturer in Philosophy and Critical Theory in many institutions in Europe and the US, he is the Co-author of De la Fin, with Alain Badiou. In the IDSVA Biennale Sessions symposium at the 58th Venice Art Biennale he will lecture on New Ecologies. A lexicon for the XXI century.
Elina Staikou: Associate Lecturer in Modern Liberal Arts at Winchester University, Elina Staikou is the author of Deconstruction at Home: Metaphors of Travel and Writing and of several articles on contemporary philosophy, literature and biomedicine. In Athens she will talk about Derrida’s recently published Geschelcht III: Sex, Race, Nation, Humanity.
Paul Armstrong: Former dean of Brown University where is a professor of English Literature, Paul Armstrong is generally considered one of America's leading theorists in the fields of hermeneutics. His most recent book is How Literature Plays with the Brain: the Neuroscience of Reading and Art. At Colby he will lecture on hermeneutics.
Dejan Lukic: Anthropologist and philosopher, Dejan Lukic teaches art writing at the School of Visual Arts in New York. All of his work deals with the inescapable convergence of art and philosophy. Current projects are titled “Charismatic Image” and “Cosmo-Politics.” At Colby he will give a seminar on research methodologies.